THE END
[TRANSLATOR'S NOTE.]
The foregoing translation of 'La Débâcle' has been subjected to some revision since its first issue in book form, many verbal alterations having been made throughout. Exception has been taken, however, to certain passages and expressions which I have not thought fit to modify. For instance, an English officer has pointed out to me that the description of the artillery practice on p. [261] can hardly be correct, as the French guns must have been fired by friction-tubes, and not by matches. If there be any error here, it is, however, M. Zola's and not mine, so that I have allowed the passage to remain as it originally stood. Objection has also been taken to the description of the execution of the captured Communists at the Lobau barracks (p. [526]), and the expression 'shot down almost at point-blank range' has been severely criticised. It is certainly awkward, but the meaning I wished to convey was that a space of no more than seven or eight feet intervened between the rifles of the firing party and the men summarily sentenced to be shot. I may add that I personally witnessed some of these executions.
I should further like to say that I am extremely grateful to my critics and correspondents for their suggestions, several of which I have utilised in revising the translation for this new edition. The judgment passed by the Press on my work was on the whole extremely flattering, and no doubt largely conduced to the success of the book in this country. 'The Downfall' in its French and English forms has, I believe, become the most popular of all M. Zola's novels. No fewer than 176,000 copies of the original have been sold in the space of one year, yielding the author the handsome sum of 4,200l. in addition to the 1,600l. paid to him for the serial rights in France, and about 2,000l. derived from the rights of translation.
E. A. V.
November 1893.
[NOTES.]
[1] Commanded by Marshal MacMahon.—Trans.